


Only Nightmare in a Blissful Dream

by solarpillar (solarwind)



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, M/M, Nightmares, normal life AU, the last tag is almost a lie but it will be restored
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 11,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarwind/pseuds/solarpillar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, he dreams that he was Cain. He was in an endless field of wheat, his brother Abel dead before him. Except it wasn’t Abel. It was Kazuya, fragile frames broken. Smashed.</p><p>A world where Naoya is a regular genius and Kazuya (protagonist) grew up to be a hacker just like Naoya and Atsuro. They stumble upon this mysterious server named 'Babel' and attempt to solve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleLinor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLinor/gifts).



> AU where they are just regular people, no demons or angels or fratricide. Will involve game’s chaos paths eventually, as well as other paths, if and when I write its sequel.

The Minegishi duo are odd kids. They are cousins, yet behave like brothers. When kids around their age were reading shounen manga and watching anime, Naoya was reading Hesse and Kazuya, encyclopedia, and both watched black and white old movies. Later, when kids around their age were still reading shounen manga and watching anime, Naoya was reading Nietzsche and Kazuya, eastern religious books, but Kazuya also watched action movies. By the time Naoya was ready to move into his own apartment, both could quote several different versions of biblical stories, followed by quotes of how god is dead.

Naoya works at Atlus by contract, but is also a freelancer ready to work for the highest bidder. His game engines are the most powerful, and interfaces the most friendly. He can program AIs that can almost pass for real persons. His personal coding are special, using his own language made, not from English, not from Japanese, but countless languages that most people no longer speak. Like Ancient Akkadian. In cuneiform, no less, typed with COMP’s A, B and direction pad. Or just use a tablet. Wacom, not stone.

Sometimes, Naoya has nightmares. He’d wake up in cold sweat, before brushing it off as just another dream. Only for the nightmare to return with a vengeance, and only Kazuya can comfort him then.

Sometimes, he dreams that he was Cain. He was in an endless field of wheat, his brother Abel dead before him. Except it wasn’t Abel. It was Kazuya, fragile frames broken. Smashed. His own hands, not Cain’s hands, covered in Kazuya’s blood, sticky and warm.

When he wakes, it’s only Kazuya’s drool, who’s somehow sleeping perpendicularly to him, head between Naoya’s hands.

Sometimes, he dreams that he was another Naoya, a cursed human with power over demons. Demons swallowed the land, and Kazuya was their King. They killed all that opposed them, be them humans, demons or angels, or even god himself. Especially god. It was a crusade against god, with demons as pawns and humans, sacrifice. They drank angels’ blood to recover power, and it tasted like the most fragrant yet revolting wine.

And when he wakes, Kazuya is of course still alive and well, teasing him, telling him that he just read too many weird books talking way too much about metaphorical murders.

“Like the ones you read, right?” Naoya retorts.

“Sure. ‘If you meet the Buddha, kill him. If you meet your ancestor, kill him. If you meet an Arhat then kill the Arhat. If you meet your parents, kill your parents.’ This kind of weird?”

“I did want to kill god in my nightmares. And you, too. And my parents were dead, so was the maiden who wanted to lead you away from me.”

“Ha. Tell me more.”

He tells him about Cain and Abel, how it differed from the canon, how Cain murdered Abel yet loved Abel, how he made Abel King of Demons and made him kill god, and how when god was killed and the kingly brother returned, triumphant, and how then they fucked passionately on the floor of some religious cult’s computer room in celebration.

With a clap of hand and devilish smirk, Kazuya says, “The last part sounds good. Let’s do it.”

“No way,” Naoya says, fully knowing it was a joke, “we don’t have any lubricant or condom, unless you are okay with computer lube?”

And then they hack some random company’s server and leave pictures of sheep in their database, while Kazuya psychoanalyzes Naoya’s dream. Diagnostic: terminal brother complex, with classic hate-love oscillation. Prescription: a kiss on the forehead by beloved little brother and stop starving self, fuckass.

Naoya gives his brother an annoyed stare. “Why did I even let you read Homestuck?”

Kazuya ignores him. “Why didn’t you cook diner? I’m starving.”

“Call Atsuro. We are going to need a third stomach to finish what I cook.”

“Are we going to have a gay orgy tonight?”

“It’s just threesome. Tell him to bring two laptops, I’m going to need some extra horse power for this server’s firewall.”

“Sure. Boil some water for me, I’m going to make some tea.”

(Hacking servers is totally gay sex in the way tea is lesbian sex. Tea-drinking hackers are therefore all technically bisexual, pansexual if they also drink coffee and play sports.)

Whatever this mysterious ‘Babel’ hosts in its database, they are going to crack it tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Naoya doesn't believe in the supernatural. They are either metaphors, hallucinations or things not yet explained.

This is why the content of this Babel server appears to be completely useless. In layman's terms, this Babel is like an outdated Wikipedia, but with demons and gods shoved all over the place. A farce. Unless there is another layer of encryption, which Naoya doubts. It took them so long to crack it too.

“Welp.” Kazuya says, sticking his tongue out.

“At least the firewall was fun. Think we can steal its code and use it ourselves?” Atsuro suggests. “It's the first time that I see anything like this. To use music as its programming language... I think that's smarter than your Akkadian, Naoya!”

“Nonsense. A programming language that only lets musically competent people use it? That's ableism.”

“Guess who just admitted his lack of music talent.” Kazuya says, rubbing salt. Not to mention that Naoya's Akkadian programming language is even worse. Can't even use in regular computers, because of the cuneiform. Unless you use the cuneiform-numbers converter, but then you'll have to remember which letter is which number, and it works by horizontal-diagonal-vertical numbers of strokes instead of place in the cuneiform equivalent of alphabet.

At least it guaranteed that only the trio can read Naoya's personal files. It made hiding porn from parents much easier, not to mention the manifestos and fanfictions. Blasphemous fanfictions. Like Remiel and Loki as rival biker gang leaders who ended up in love despite being part of different pantheons, and the local Japanese deities played matchmakers. Or Metatron setting up Cain and Abel into kissing each other instead of killing, while Seth attempted to kill them for family honor. Or Laksmi, Isthar and a human Maiden's lesbian threesome.

However, Kazuya also wrote other fanfictions that are harder to hide. Because they are yaoi. That starred Naoya. Co-starred himself. Occasionally starred or co-starred Atsuro too. Kazuya is the least talented hacker of the trio, so the other two can crack them open easier than a monkey opening a banana.

This is why he hid them in a place where the other two would never attempt to look: in a folder named _music schoolwork_. In files that aren't password protected, no less, as password protecting something from these two is like protecting self from bees by smearing honey and dead bees all over oneself. Therefore, the best way to protect something from them is to hide it in plain sight and hope they won't get curious.

But now Atsuro wants to use this music based language, so his folder is getting compromised. Quick, think of something. What doesn't attract their attention?

 

_hamster pictures_

 

Nailed it.

“But I don't like music,” Naoya says, “why not use something else? Say, hamster pawprints?”

Dammit.

 

_tropical fish_

 

“Nah,” Atsuro says, “fish are cuter and simpler to draw.”

Et tu, Atsuro?

 

_french lessons for all_

 

“How about troubadour French?” Naoya suggests.

This strange synchronicity is problematic.

 

_beginners english_

 

Atsuro objects again. “Occam's razor, Naoya. We don't have to borrow dead languages. We can make it in English like everyone else, and work on our encryption and firewalls instead. No need to make the language itself needlessly complicated.”

“Well,” Naoya says as he brushes his hair, “Kazuya, what do you think?”

Putain de tabarnac de vache bleue.

“I think we do as Atsuro say. English, but work on the encryption. The language should be user-friendly. No need to borrow dead or dying languages or use weird grammar.”

“It's decided then.” Naoya claps his hands. “We'll make the new language in English. Then we integrate what we've stolen into that. Atsuro, make your parents proud.”

“Hey, I can't speak it, but my written English is fine.”

“Wait, wait!” Kazuya raises his hand. “Why are we making a new language again?”

Naoya grins. “Weren't you looking?” He points at the data from Babel. “We are going to test this. Supposedly, this code can alter reality itself. Can you imagine that, cousin? If it is real, then we would be able to hack reality itself.”


	3. Chapter 3

Amane Kuzuryu is an ordinary schoolgirl with no ties to angels or demons or a certain demon-god called Belberith. She is the Shomonkai's Maiden, yes, but she doesn't let it swallow her life up. She has never heard the voice of the divine or the eternally damned, and she is certain that it wasn't because she lacked faith or desire. She believed in them. Believed. Not anymore. As far as they are concerned, her father is a well-intentioned nutjob gone almost insane after lady Kuzuryu's passing. It's still very noble of him, trying to gather people and survive god's ordeal and all. Just. Probably not going to happen, the ordeal or the survival. Humanity is self-destructive by nature. If there will be an ordeal, it's going to be on mankind and by mankind. Not some god sitting in his heavenly throne, and not some demon from hell. It's 21st century, after all. Science and technology are in the receiving end of much more faith than gods and demons. Even if gods aren't starving, whoever ruling over technology should be much better off, and if this entity isn't working for humanity's well-being, Amane will find him or her or them and beat them up herself.

But angels and demons would be fun, too. And ghosts. If she were a real psychic, she would talk to her late mother and angels and demons and have tea with them. She would dance with Laksmi, race a Garm, learn how to revive the death and burn dangerous monsters to crisp. She would be badass.

Instead, all that she has are imagination and video games. And normal life. Normal life is good too. Peaceful school life, not getting bullied and receiving an endless flow of admiration gifts from both girls and boys alike. That's a good life. These handmade sweets are delicious. Too bad lesbianism isn't well-seen in Japan, or Amane would consider marrying this girl. This is a girl, right? Delicate handwriting, pleasant smell from the letter, excellent culinary skills... She has never seen her in person, but she did catch a glimpse of her, and it was a slender person with marked waist. If that was a boy, he must be a very pretty boy.

 

 --- 

“How did it go?”

“She's eating them with a contented expression. I think it's a success.”

“That's my cousin.”

 

The handmade sweets were made by none than Kazuya Minegishi himself, but Amane doesn't know that. Kazuya, being the younger cousin to Naoya Minegishi, a connoisseur of Japanese tranditional desserts (as well as computer programmer, but that's another story... alright, it is this story too), has mastered the arts of the kitchen because of Naoya's (and Kazuya's own) picky mouth. And Naoya's self-neglect. He can probably starve himself to death if no one tells him to eat. Unless he dies from lack of sleep first, which he needs reminder too. Kazuya took upon himself to watch over Naoya and make sure that latter lives, to the point he has considered breathing for the older cousin. Mouth-to-mouth was attempted, and never re-attempted since. It caused issues.

 

“How's Atsuro doing?”

“Getting his skull bashed in, I think.”

 

Atsuro Kihara is Kazuya's friend and Naoya's apprentice. His feelings for a certain Yoohoo... correction, Yuzu Tanikawa is very well-known. Unfortunately, Yuzu does not feel the same and is currently beating Atsuro up for messing with her head.

 

“Women.” Naoya sighs. “Why do we even need them?”

“Because we wouldn't be here without them?”

“Why are we men then? Why can't we be all be female and lesbian like certain lizards?”

“That is an excellent question, but I think the right question to ask is why is that we are hiding up on this tree with binoculars and acting like a duo of creeps? I'm sure that even lesbians court their girlfriends properly without this... this... creeping thing.”

“This is called gathering information. How can we date someone without knowing what they are without their persona made for the common society?”

“I disagree. This is called this-is-why-you-still-don't-have-a-girlfriend-and-why-aren't-you-behind-bars-yet.”

“I'm pretty sure that it is because I hate people and avoid people.”

“I'd say I hate you, but I love you so I can't say that.”

“Just don't kiss me again.”

“Right, foreign body fluids are gross and all. And it was technically a mouth-to-mouth.”

“I do not remember any kind of mouth-to-mouth that involves shoving a tongue into the other person's mouth.”

“Fine, I was hormonal, alright? It started as a mouth-to-mouth. It just... changed.”

The situation became so awkward that both cousins shut up.

 ---

Yuzu Tanikawa doesn't mean to beat Atsuro up. Yet she is. Affections are confusing. She does like Atsuro, but not romantically. She likes Kazuya that way. That guy is friendly, but that creep of a cousin he has... It makes her shudder to just think of him. So pale, and so cold. Always eyeing her as if she's some kind of demon trying to snatch Kazuya away and eat his brain or something. The last thing she needs is Atsuro confessing his romantic love for her and, while that isn't what he's just did, it was still confusing enough that she's beating him up. Atsuro's that creep's apprentice, too. And he idolizes him. What kind of idiot idolizes that kind of creep? If not because Yuzu has her own girlcrush, she'd believe Atsuro to be gay. But that kind of boycrush is too much, homosexuality or not. Naoya this, Naoya that. Naoya is always the best. Yuzu wonders if Atsuro doesn't pray to Naoya three times a day and spends the Sunday holding a mass over the glory and light of Naoya Minegishi, hacker and programmer extraordinaire.

This is just too much. Atsuro is supposed to be smart. How can he not see Naoya for the kind of monster he is? She is certain that, if given the power, Naoya would throw the three of them into monsters' den just to watch them sink or swim. Kazuya won't be spared.

Naoya is like a nightmare in her series of blissful dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

_That's not English._

Holding a homebrew PSP, Kazuya can only stare. 

"Ever played Patapon? That's how it works, but with 8 drums." Naoya turns on his own PSP. A cute animated Etna winks at him before Lilith Sigil shows up, and the Demon Summoning Program starts.

Amane's eyes are sparkling. Yuzu is at loss for words. Atsuro is sparkling with Amane.

"'Music is the ancient common language' is very true," Amane says as she inputs the code for Sarasvati, "I approve of your creation, Naoya."

Of  course, Sarasvati does not come out from the screen. Instead, a list of different instances of Sarasvati show up, and appear to be selling contract via auction. Any attempt to bet or auto buy returns "You have no macca." error, but Naoya added the option of "Copy [into Compendium]." The file takes up an entire memory card, and reads like a music sheet. Amane tries the code for a spell instead. No auction this time, but again a copy is made, and the file still reads like music. Some spells read like music and include a dance pattern. She tries the Holy Dance, full of holy anger and madness, and it reminds her of a much more violent version of Capoeira, and maybe a bit of Beijing Opera. Fire Dance is more of her style, passionate and fluid. Ice Dance is elegant and sharp, but suits Yuzu more. Electric Dance is like sexy acupuncture in dance form.

Copied spells can be used immediately, without another musical code input. However, a single memory card can only hold up to three active spells, three passive spells and one auto spell.

"Yeah, right." Yuzu smacks her own forehead with her PSP, "this is fun and all, but what is it for? That's all they do?" 

She almost says _That's what the entire pointless seduction was for?_

Naoya laughs. It's a stereotypical mad scientist laugh, and he is proud of himself, ignoring how he looked like a huge dork in front of his potential future sister-law. Whichever girl will be. Kazuya will have to marry, because he isn't going to himself and the Minegishi line will depend on it. 

"Now, here's the fun part: some of these 'spells' are actually reproducible via the power of technology."

He paused for the effect, and it did not work as well as in hammy B-movies and video games. Ignoring their annoyed-rather-than-curious glares, he continues.

"I started with Flight. I hope you like it."

Cue simulatneous inputting of the Flight Auto-Spell code in all four PSPs. It works. For the entirety of three seconds. Then the batteries ran out and the PSPs emit the unpleasant smell of fried hardware just before the screens black out.

"Bummer." Yuzu hands back the burnt PSP.

"Why don't you start with something less portable and more powerful?" Amane asks.

"I tried, with 12 PlayStations linked together. It fried them all. Now, if only we have better hardware, like the computers in Shomonkai headquarter-"

Amane literally shoves the Shomonkai skeleton key card into Naoya's face.

"-and a private, high-energy place, like the backstage of a bar where a wonderful singer empties her soul-"

"You just want to meet Haru, don't you?" Yuzu complains.

"Definitely." Naoya says as he rubs the card mark on his face. "I deserve a reward. What better than listen to the songs of a fiery redhead?"

"You're impossible."

"There is another reason: Babel, the data entity we hacked and are exploring right now, demands 'emotions' as 'energy'. It doesn't make any sense, but that's the only way to access it. Feed it 'emotions', and Babel 'opens'. Not feed it emotions, Babel might as well not exist. Strange behavior, but if it works, we should not question it too much."

"'Emotions..." Amane echos.

"Not only it is a database and library that runs on emotions," Naoya adds, "it can also act as a server and wireless network tower. Again, powered by emotions. And its range is enough to cover the entire planet and more."

Kazuya, Atsuro and Amane's eyes light up. Yuzu looks only more confused.

"Do you mean-" Amane starts.

"-we can have worldwide free WiFi?!" Atsuro almost screamed.

"Exactly. All we have to do is open more imageboards and feed trolls often, and everybody enjoys free wireless internet connection for as long as we want."

The screams that followed were both of joy and horror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you could have free wifi at price of internet having more trolling than we already have, would you give it up or accept it? Personally I'd go with the third choice of installing Anger Booths, which work like confession booths but you angrily scream in them instead.


	5. Chapter 5

It was dark in Naoya's nightmare.

There was the sound of water, though around him was nothing but dust. There was the sound of water's splash, as if someone was treading through the water, slowly but surely, almost sensually.  
The person who was treading the water held Naoya, and placed him between soft thighs. Naoya was not sure which part of him was placed between the thighs. But he was sucked in, through a narrow yet warm passage, into a dark yet bright place, full of water. It was loud, the sound of something beating, like a heart but thousand times louder. And sound of flows, so many flows. And voices, so familiar yet so strange, and Naoya was unable to understand them, yet understood all.

  
The water was an ocean, yet also a field of stars.

  
Then the stars exploded.

  
The ocean broke.

  
He woke in his bed, breath heavy. He was not sweating, but when he washed his face with warm water in the bathroom, he saw how pale he was, how his lips were drained of blood.

Nightmares. When his life is so full of bliss. He wonders why.

“Naoya...?”

He must have woken his cousin. Such a kitten, that little Kazuya, sleep and wake whenever he feels like. Not this time, though.

“Kazuya, what's up?”

“I'd say 'my dick', but it's not. Can you come here?” There was a pause, and then Kazuya added, “Please?”

Naoya complies. There is scent of blood in the barely lit room. The laptop is open, and a few programs are running. Sitting next to it is Kazuya, holding some tissue paper in one hand, most of it dyed red. The other hand was over his face.

“Oh, I didn't cut myself. It's just nose blood... but I'm getting a bit dizzy, so can you please get me a glass of water?”

That was a lot of blood, though.

“Welp,” Kazuya said.

“Welp,” Naoya echoed.

Kazuya removes a thoroughly soaked wad of paper, lets it bleeds a bit, and applies another.

“The Minegishi aren't very healthy, are we?”

“No,” Naoya says, “we aren't. We are blessed in other ways.”

“Ha.”

Kazuya nudges his cousin with the top of the head, and Naoya nudges back, until they are pressing their heads against each other, forehead to forehead, eyes to eyes, fingers interlaced.

“Cousincon.”

“Look who's speaking.”

A sound much like an alert interrupts them, telling them that its job has just completed.

“Another server?”

“Uh-hm.”

Still covering the bleeding nose, Kazuya plugs another flash disk into the laptop, and selects a new project.

“Is that the Shomokai server that you are hacking?”

“Yeah, the one you just saw was just another website host. This one should be the right one.”

“'Right one'?”

“I'm searching for Belberith. The file, not the god.”

“What does it do?”

“I can't believe you sometimes. Belberith is related to Babel in some way. Amane suspects that it might be copied from Babel, in fact. Or the other way around, that Babel was built with the blueprint in Belberith. You should be the one telling me all this. Do you know who Belberith was?”

Naoya couldn't possibly know. He follows no god, after all. He has no use for mummified concepts that are at best laughable metaphors for human aspects, labelled as other-than-human for no more reason than a non-existent scapegoat.

Or result of a bicameral mind. He doubts it.

"Belberith," Kazuya explains, "is a variation of the name Baal-Berith, the Lord of Covenant, a god worshipped by the people of Canaan. He was eventually demonized, and by modern time, not as well-known as other gods. Babel, our mysterious server-slash-library-slash-data-organism here, claims that he is one of the many... the translation is fuzzy here, either 'demon' or 'god' or both, the term seems to be interchangeable here, to be crowned the title of Bel. Baldr becomes Beldr, Jezebel and Belial stay the same, and, strangely, Hevel becomes Abel, wearing the crown of Bel."

"Since when was Abel a god or demon?"

"Exactly. This puzzles me too. But Abel was a story. That makes him somewhat similar to a god, I suppose. He did show up in The Sandman. Gods, demons, stories and things that stay even after you stop believing in them."

"Which makes Abel the most powerful of them all, being a story, having no need for worship and only an existence."

"Yes. And the archetype of younger brother is universal and exists as long as siblings exist."

"The good younger brother."

"Ah. Not exactly. Abel is, in this case, a demon of vengeance."

"That's not bad or evil."

"No. But hatred is still where he draws his power."

Naoya sneers. "You don't suggest that Cain draws his power from love in this case?"

"Ah." Kazuya opens a file, showing the figure of a bird-like being. "You are not wrong. Our Cain is indeed powered by love. His love for his younger brother Abel, to be exact."

"Ah. Incest."

"Nah. It's not said anywhere. And, how come you didn't notice any of this when you programmed the simulator? You should be explaining all this to me."

Naoya shrugs. "It's all stories and make-believes. No need to spend time and energy on that."

"But you are listening."

"I like when you are doing the telling."

Another hack is completed. Not Belberith. Instead, the file names itself as Wendigo.

"Canadian this time?" Naoya frowns. "I thought the theme's middle-eastern here."

"Not exactly. I found various files, most of them beings that could be find in old stories, and many of them correspond to demons that appear in the auction you hacked. However, some are new. The Divine race, for example, starting with Angel and ending with Metatron."

"Enoch. The man lifted into the sky via bullshit."

"It was a pimpin' ride, not bullshit."

"Fine. Why is he a giant mecha again?"

"This isn't your most orthodox compendium, for sure."

And another file. Messiah Abel.

"Wait. Hold on."

"Yes?"

"That looks like you."

It does. The image of Messiah Abel is split image of Kazuya, only in a white cape. Even the earphones are there.

"My smile isn't that hollow," Kazuya protests, "and this could be Amane's doing. She's one of us too, you know. Nice photoshop skill."

"And this. What is this?"

Despot Abel. Warlord Abel. Both in black cape instead of white, but otherwise, Kazuya.

"And this. Open this."

Kazuya cracks the file next to them. 

It doesn't even say Cain. It says Naoya, and it is exactly Naoya Minegishi. The haori, the prematurely white hair, the shirt and pants and scrawny frame.

Suddenly, his nightmares come back to him. The murder. The endless life. The rebirths.

And the end of them all, when he leaves his humanity behind, all to spend the rest of his eternity with his brother.

"I'm calling Amane."


	6. Chapter 6

“Yo.”

Amane greets them in her own room over webcam, wearing some meme hoodie and shorts. She isn't in Japan, because running away from crazy dad and all. She shouldn't have let him see her hobby. He has taken the presence of that file cluster Babel as some kind of divine message from Belberith himself and doubled his efforts to worship Belberith and spread news of his existence.

She thought she would fly to US, Canada, France or even Australia. Instead, she is in Belgium. Eating fluffy waffles three times a day, apparently. And all the chocolates. Surprisingly, there are less flavours of chocolate available than in Japan, but the quality feels much better, if not only because of placebo effect.

But the waffles. You can't find waffle iron of this quality easily in Japan, and the waffles even less so.

“Amane? We need your help-”  
“Did you photoshop us into demons and messiahs and upload them into Babel?”

Ah, the bro- cousins are as lively as ever.

“I did not do such thing? But please show me, that could be interesting.” Her smile is almost like Naoya's.

Kazuya sends the cracked files over.

“Interesting indeed. Is there one of me too?” She is definitely interested. Who did this? Is it human?

If a non-human did this, it would be interesting. Probably not Belberith, though. She is betting on an AI that evolved in the network after being programmed to do so.

Kazuya takes some time and Naoya drags his own laptop close, and after a few minutes of searching, it is there. Amane. Human Amane, just like how Naoya was listed as human.

“I don't get to become a Hero or Kishin or Genma? That's disappointing...”

“But who did it?” Naoya is panicking. Whoever who did this must be either the master of Babel or another hacker equal to or above their level, and excellent at photo manipulation.

“Relax, relax.” She begins hacking Babel's logs as she speaks. “I'm sure that whoever did this bears no ill will. And... hm... Nobody besides us and Babel itself has visited Babel for the last decade. According to the logs, anyway. And nobody besides Babel did before. The creation date is a corrupt number. I think the logs might have been wiped, or the user simply logged in as Babel.”

Or the logs have been faithful, and nobody did. It was all Babel's autonomous updates. That would be interesting.

Naoya has apparently gotten the same results on his side, and similar conclusion. But his face is that of horror. Paranoia, even. Kazuya is just confused.

“Amane,” Naoya finally says, “Thank you very much. I needed to confirm that. You are the only one of us with Photoshop skill at all so... sorry for suspecting you. I'm cutting this off now. Talk to you later.”

  
Kazuya is as confused as ever. Naoya suddenly holds him with the desperation of, should he say, of a drowning man. It's unusual.

After what feels like hours, Naoya lets Kazuya go and, keeping intense eye contact, seriously asks him: “If I have killed you in a past life, how would you feel?”

Kazuya is wordless for a moment. Then he bursts out in laughter.

“W-what?”

“Naoya.” Kazuya tries to stop laughing, but it's not working. “What kind of question is that?”

“I'm asking you if you would hate me if I killed you in a past life! It's plaguing me! What if I did?”

Kazuya is only laughing harder. Now he feels ableist. But he is still laughing, and the more he thinks the more he laughs.

“That's some really hilarious bullshit there.”

Naoya is speechless.

“Naoya. Look at me.”

He does. Kazuya looks the same as always.

“I'm Kazuya Minegishi. You are Naoya Minegishi. This is our life now, alright? Who gives a rat's ass about who we were in our past life and what we did then? So what if you did? I don't remember that. You don't remember that. You have nightmares, sure, but that wouldn't be karma. You are just malnourished and stay up late reading creepypasta all the time.”

“But-”

“Reincarnation and karma that carries over are things fabricated to entertain highshchool girls and childless grandmas, or plebes and serfs in the past. Or people with wallets. I'm keeping your wallet, and you certainly aren't a highshcool girl reading clichéd shoujo manga.”

“No, but you-”

“And I'll always be the little cousin with incestuous hots for you.”

And with that, he winks at Naoya.

Naoya is still unsure.

“Look,” Kazuya tries again, “in another past life of ours, you were probably a bunch of lettuce and I probably ate you. Now I'm paying off the karma for eating you by taking care of you, is that alright?”

“Why lettuce?”

“Never give up, cousin. Let's go to sleep. It was just another nightmare and irrational fear.”

The bed is too small for two, and so is the futon, so they pile sheets and duvets on the floor until it's thick enough and soft enough, and squeeze in like children in rural cottages.

Back to back, they do spend the rest of the night dreaming blissful dreams.


	7. Chapter 7

No nightmare, but dreams.

He was in a great wheel of many colours, flower-laced, petals thin like spider lilies. He walked inside the flower-laced wheel, his many siblings by his side, his siblings alive and dead and not yet born.  
He looked outside and caught himself staring inside, smiling a smile of sphinx.  
So many of himself, each smiling like a sphinx. Inside and outside the wheel.  
But he alone smiled a smile of Oedipus prince, and by his side Kazuya held a beaker of blood, fragrant as wine and red as the other shore.  
They poured blood wine on the wheel, and all was spider lilies.  
The petals shook like harvestman legs.

Naoya wakes to the sound of Kazuya loudly role playing with Amane. They are about to fight a dragon.

"Why a dragon? You are not westerners, dragons should be just."  
"You don't understand," Kazuya says, "we are playing as chaotic evil and we want to eat a silver dragon for supper."  
"I'm going to eat you for supper if you don't make brunch for me!"  
"How about you eat my-"

As if by divine intervention, Kazuya's foot, tangled in desktop's wires, unplugged the source and dragged down the tower as he turned to argue. The loud crash drowned out whatever obscenity he was about to blurb.

Kazuya stayed silent and, once his brain finally processed the irony, murmurs a line of improvised mantra.

"Sorry," Naoya says while only half meaning it, "I shouldn't have been so forceful."  
"No, no," Kazuya mutters, "I'm sorry. I got too in character for the RP and forgot to break out." He pauses, puzzled. "But what was that about? I don't remember you ordering me like that before. You seemed like another person."

Naoya is caught off guard too. He remembers the dream, and while he did not feel fear when he had it or at the wake, it seems like a nightmare the more he thinks about it.

He has feeling that what he did was what a Naoya outside the wheel would have done. In his dream it was as if it was a normal, habitual thing. In his wake it was if looking into a mirror and find an alien reflection, wearing one's face but holding something entirely different inside.

And the spider lilies' petals, twitching like harvestman legs.

Kazuya is in the kitchen, preparing their brunch, a small knife in hand to peel apples. Naoya finds himself glaring at the blade, as if it aims to plunge into not fruit but human flesh.

"Naoya?"

He flinches, as if pulled from a trance.

The apples peeled, Kazuya drops the knife in the sink. He offers one to Naoya.

"Have some now. It'll be a while before I finish the sandwiches proper."

He takes a bigger knife to slice the apples and somehow it did not alert Naoya as the smaller one did. Soon enough the sandwiches are done, and Naoya had only reached the core of his apple.

After brunch, another amateur psychanalysis session.

“So, harvestman, is it?”  
“Shouldn't you focus on wheel and spider lilies instead?”  
“Denial, I see. What do you fear in a harvestman?”  
“Primal fear of anything spider-like, is that unatural?”  
“Not really.” Kazuya shrugged. “Not everybody fears spiders, and it's often a learned thing. You never were exposed to such idea, so I don't think you would fear spiders. But yes, harvestman. What does it represent?”  
“The usual. Fear of death, I suppose. Spider is a death thing. But seriously, spider lilies!”  
“The 'Other Shore'. But it should bring a sense of safety and longing, as the path paved by spider lilies is the safe path.”  
“What did we say about inducing ideas in patients?”  
“There is nothing to fear in spider lilies.”  
“'Spider.'”  
“Spider. But a wheel, and not a web? Not a cage? Did you feel trapped?”  
“Of course not! The world was a vehicle, and the vehicle was a wheel. It was laced with spider lilies.”  
“'World'?”  
“Yes. The final Major Arcana card of most Tarot sets. The World is wheel-shaped. Samsara, if you want.”  
“Wheel? Isn't it a globe or a circle?”  
“It is round and it spins. That's a wheel.”

It went for hours and the conclusion is simple: Fear. That, both cousins agreed. Then they send their works to their clients and call the day done. 

“It's great that we work at home.” Naoya is shameless in his shut-in-ness.  
“Yeah, thanks to your uncurable shut-in-ness I'm never going to be able to leave you.”  
“I can go live with Atsuro.”  
“I'm not losing you to Atsuro.”  
“But you've got Ama-”

Kazuya shooshs him with a headbutt. He presses all his body and its weight on his older cousin, presses down and flattens the latter on the makeshift bed. He keeps their heads locked like this, forehead rubbing into forehead, before sitting up, hands kneading on Naoya's belly in the way of a kitten.

“I'm not going to purr no matter how long you do this.”  
“I can try.”

Kazuya starts grinding. Naoya panics. “Um. Mixed signals. Really mixed and contradictory signals.”

Kazuya does not seem to want to stop. His smile is sphinx-like, less Athens and more Khnopff. With one hand he reaches for Naoya's neck-

A sharp series of beeping cut them mid-action, the sound of an instant message.

“We should read the message,” Naoya suggests, “Could be important.”

But they did not plug the computer back. The unconnected tower blinks as the message appears on equally unplugged monitor, white on black, like the begining of some bad sci-fi horror.


	8. Chapter 8

Naoya wakes on the sofa, Kazuya asleep in his lap and rubbing against Naoya's lower areas. The desktop behind him is on sleep mode.

Naoya picks up the nearest magazine and slaps his cousin on the head. Kazuya wakes.

"Mmmhmm?"

"Look at where you are rubbing, you sinner."

Kazuya gets up. "I had a strange nightmare."

"You too? I guess it's contagious. We are all going to get cryptic nightmares."

"Do you remember the multiworld theory?"

"What the-"

"I dreamt of another me. He told me that I'm doing a good job and should keep doing it. He called me a good shepherd."

Naoya looks at the desktop. Still in sleep mode.

"But you are not lamb, aren't you, Naoya?" Kazuya is uncharacteristically angry. "I refuse to be a shepherd! If there is a shepherd, doesn't that imply sheep? Aren't sheep protected by a shepherd to be slaughtered and eaten?" He smashes the magazine on the floor, his body shaking like a leaf. "How can the other me-"

The desktop made a noise. Both men turn to look at it. 

Normal screen, as it was left. No message on the screen. 

Both men sighed in relief. 

"It's just a dream," Kazuya dismisses, "let's make brunch."

Peppered tea and grilled cheese. Red bean pudding. Sliced apples, cat shaped rather than bunny.

"So, the dream?" Naoya inquires, "Was it as bad as mine?"

A terminal, gold and black adorned with carved lotus. Men who are his father, yet not from this life. Multitudes of the Messiahs. Many Kazuya, most caped, stood in the hallway, spouting information of a future that is not of this world. There was no spiderlilies, but grey bones, frail as grassblades.

He walked on a path of bones. When he looked back, it was a path of dust. The exit was the apartment door, yet far up in the sky was a golden door, like of a cathedral.

Many Kazuya stared at him as he left. None of those Kazuya were still human.

"If you are worrying that your kink makes you less human, there's at least one genre for that on porn sites." Naoya pats him on the head. "You are my Kazuya no matter what."

"The age gap is also different," Kazuya says instead. "We are about the same age here. In other realities, you are much older, and your parents died in a car accident. You survived thanks to a curse. My parents took you in and we lived together until you came of age, and you left. Some years after that, a cult, no, three cults summoned their gods and demons thanks to a program you wrote."

"What are you-"

Kazuya looks into Naoya's eyes. "Babel is a memetic entity. A gate. It exists between worlds. By merely gazing at it, information would leak from it into our minds. We should stop investigating this anomaly and let the damage end with nightmares."

Naoya blinks. Kazuya stays, unblinking. There are bags under his eyes.

"Alright," Naoya groans, "you are scaring me. Let's post this on a forum and call it a day."

Some commenters on the post have familiar names.


	9. Chapter 9

Amane isn't afraid of dreaming.

In a recurrent dream, there is a garden by a tiny pond, the water clear and without fish. The trees always changed, but there is often a tangle of roses by the roots, black and shaggy, stems bare and peeling. The buds did not bloom; but Amane knew that in each of the unopened bud, there is a body part. The mouth would not stop whispering in a language she did not understand, the voice low enough to be drowned out by the shuffling of the canopies.

Way above, in the sky, there is a shade of pink almost lilac, like a blush. She knows it as a Polaris.

The sky of her dream has countless Polaris. Countless Eli. Even Cor Caroli are many, though it was already a binary star to start with.

A Kazuya could sometimes be found on one of the trees. It's not the real Kazuya, because his personality is different from the one she knows in the waking world, but it's a Kazuya.

"We are still missing a piece," he would sometimes say, "I need to see Naoya."

She doesn't dream of that Kazuya anymore.

In the morning, mixed with the scent of coffee and breakfast, is sometimes the scent of something she could not name.

\---

Yuzu is afraid of dreaming.

She remembers, in her dreams, of monsters chasing her. The confusion was messy but she was not afraid to fight them. They crumbled when she shattered them with light, and yet more came, endless as tidal waves.

Then she is awake, the relationship between her parents is still the same. She cannot fight her parents. What is a family that fights family? Yet they do.

She leaves for the park again, sitting alone on a bench, afraid that the release her dream allows her would only make her waking life worse. Afraid that she will want to sleep and dream forever.

But he is there, and she feels fine when he is.

If he's always incestuously glued to his cousin in real life, at least she can have him by her side in her dreams.

\---

Kazuya sees himself in his dreams. 

He knows what to do. A knife in the lungs sometimes work better than trying to aim for the heart. If they get to Naoya, the Game would start anew, and their peace would not survive.

"This doesn't feel right", some of those himselves would say, staring at the blood on their own chest and hands, "this-"

Kazuya understands. It just doesn't feel right when it's not him that does it.

Sometimes his dream is in a vast plain with a lit campfire, he is a very tall man waiting for another very tall man, and the food is going to be burnt.

He plants the knife in the ground. One day a Cain would find it, but it won't be Naoya.

Naoya will be safe from his assigned role.

Sometimes the best way to win a game is to never play.

\---

Naoya has no more nightmares, as in, he is no longer afraid of them. Sometimes demons that grew up with you become tame, like how wolves becomes dogs.

Flowers, Celtic knots, his own smile as others withered. A man who claims to have given birth to his many children, each more monstrous than the other. A nest of men and women and others holding well-sharpened lances.

The fire of the pyre is not hot in the dreams.

Sometimes, he is a very tall man, in a vast plain, before a lit campfire-

There used to be a hole there, where another very tall man should be.

That thing in the hole, it appears familiar in a way he could not understand.

Is it a valve? A grindstone? The Sampo? A prayer wheel?

He pushes it slowly, and like grain through mill, the image of a man very much like himself appears before him.


	10. Chapter 10

In another life, another world, Atsuro would be at least the second best hacker of the group. In this one, not so much. Over the years Kazuya had surpassed him, and even their mentor Naoya.

Atsuro has a bad habit. If a file is protected, he must want to take a look. Kazuya has more than one protected vaults in his laptop. Atsuro is visiting, Kazuya and Naoya are making tea in the kitchen, and the laptop is open and lit and the files are in view.

Loud chatter and laughter in the kitchen. It's going to take the cousins some time.

Atsuro takes out a flash memory drive and plugs it in. Kazuya's laptop blocks it at once. Of course.

There are three vaults. The first is named "budgie pictures", which is probably full of semi-erotic pictures of Naoya. The second is "valve" but does not seem to be about video games. The third is in a foreign language, uses cuneiform but not quite Akkadian. Does not appear to be Sumerian either. Ugaritic? Neshili? Hurrian? Could even be Urartian. Atsuro squints. It must be something readable. They used to play with Akkadian all the time, and Kazuya shouldn't have learned another-

"Yo, Atsuro, stop peeping."

Atsuro jumps. Yuzu.

"How did you get in, Yoohoo?"

Yuzu's face sours rather than reddening with anger. "I stayed overnight." She looks at Atsuro's face and rethinks her statement. "In Naoya's room. No. Not like that you idiot!"

When Kazuya interferes, Atsuro had almost forgotten about the vaults.

After he leaves, while riding the bus home, he remembers. Three groups of files vaulted up like malware inside Kazuya's laptop. 

Valve.

Three weeks ago, Naoya posted about a nightmare concerning a valve. A structure, like a miniature Tower of Babel, inscribed with language of fire, that when pushed operated in some way like a valve. A man very much like himself, but also very tall, came through the valve like grinded salt. Filled up a hole.

 _The man was already dead, so there was no danger._ That was what Naoya claimed to be the end of the dream was in his mind. But there was also some kind of outrage that he felt, thought he could not pin point to if it was because he saw a dead human or because the dead human had his face.

Kazuya said something lewd in reply to that post. And very incestuous. Amane laughed it off and suggested a few horror movies. Yuzu did not participate in the thread, and in fact did not participate in that forum for over a month.

Yuzu has been living with the Minegeshi cousins for over a month, that information Atsuro has just learned a few hours ago. Something about her parents. She'll move to her own place in July. He had teased her about how a girl is living with men, and how westernized they are, but she retorted that it's not unheard of in Japan either. Kazuya brought up Banana/Mahoko Yoshimoto for some reason, and he and Yuzu had their own conversation, leaving out Atsuro with Naoya for the rest of the visit.

The Akkadian-like name. Naoya claimed the word to mean "What Is Spoken In Vain". He theorized it to be a laundry list of broken promises, but never verified it. Then he went on a tangent about wagashi and food in general. Cereals and the sugar betrayal. Naoya dislikes tasting the refined sugar, yet most confections are made of refined sugar, so he had Kazuya make wagashi out of mizuame and fruits. The acidity of the fruits clashed with the sweet cover though, and the result was not as pleasant as expected. The next attempt would be using honey preserved fruits.

There was nothing alarming about the life of the Minegishi, so Atsuro didn't worry, merely curious.

What is alarming is that Atsuro's apartment door was broken. Not the lock, the door itself. Somebody broke in by breaking the whole door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Urartu was Kingdom of Van. If you search art from that place, or any place of ancient Mesopotamia, they always indicate which figures were divine by a pose that shows off muscular calves of their legs.
> 
> Before I realized that I thought they had leg fetish (which may still not be wrong).
> 
> Oh, about the Akkadian, the so-called Standard Akkadian is Standard Babylonian, the Akkdian dialect used in Babylon, while Assyria had their own variation of Akkadian. They were sibling civilizations.
> 
> And yes, the past form of to grind is ground like in ground beef, but the archaic form is grinded and I like it better when the word it describes is salt for this kind of situation.
> 
> Mizuame won't taste that different from sugar as it is sugar. It's placebo. It can be used to make mizu shingen mochi.
> 
> Next chapter preview: "Oh, I _am_ a good shepherd. We differ in whose subjectivity sees the 'good' part."


	11. Chapter 11

* * *

KAZYA said on January 20th, 2017 THU 1:28PM

Yo self

I mean Kazuya

Remember to

* * *

 

Kazuya squints. January 20th isn't a Thursday, and no way that he was awake this early in the afternoon. Has to be a troll or he's still in a nightmare.

 

* * *

 

NAOYA said on January 20th, 2017 SAT 1:29PM

Kazuya. You may not be aware, but you are already caught in our little game. You cannot avoid playing, though you have delayed it on your end for many years. Congratulations. I hope those years have been blissful for you.

But we need to tally our winnings, Kazuya. The gate of kings, which you know as Babel, opens on both sides, and we have been knocking for years.

Come to us. Your presence will be automatically tallied as a win.

After all, you've won over two thousand years ago...

* * *

 

 

That's not his Naoya at all. His Naoya is sleeping on the sofa after collecting too many waifu in his cellphone game. Still holding the phone. If anybody hacks Naoya's phone account...

That wouldn't be too surprising, considering how careless he is with his own stuff. Work stuff is always secure but his own password is sometimes just Passw0d.

 

* * *

AT-LOW said on January 20th, 2017 FRI 1:32PM

Hello, this is Loki, I just kidnapped your friend Atsuro Kihara. Come rescue him :)

We are at his apartment. Meet me with your laptop at 7PM.

P.S.: Do you know how hard it is to intentionally commit a crime in this world when you don't actually exist in this world?

* * *

 

 

A kidnapping scam? Kazuya calls Atsuro's phone. At two rings, Kazuya hangs up. Atsuro's apartment has cameras in the hallway.

 

When Kazuya pulls out the tape, it shows Atsuro poking his head instead a closed door, and then walk inside. 


	12. Chapter 12

Midori had to give up her dreams.

She failed her tests to become a policewoman. Too reckless, too empathetic, unable to work properly in a team, they said. When you are policewoman, you must think with pure logic, with numbers, because compassion cripples. 

And she brought shame on the whole class by spouting childish ideals in front of SDF in visit, the teacher then added during one-on-one.

SDF is not usually required to be judges of a regular exam, but Izuna volunteered for a special visit.

"Do you have nightmares, sometimes?" Izuna asked Midori in private.

"What of?"

Izuna didn't specify. "Maybe they are not nightmares after all. More like a blissful dream."

In Izuna's bag there was a journal full of notes and sketches of adventures right out of a RPG or TV show, collected from various different people, of angels controlling the gouvernent and battle against and amongst demons. It ends with a black cross over red, and the words "Innocent Sin = Remembering the Undone".

"If you remember anything," Izuna said, "let me know."

Midori bumped into a young man on her way home. A polite young man, bit older than her, slightly taller than average, loud metal music spilling out of his headphones.

"Sorry," he said, "in a hurry. Are you hurt?"

And he ran off.

And now Midori is having nightmares. 

 

\---

 

When Kazuya arrives in front of Atsuro's apartment, he can see double. One reality is that the door is unharmed, the same as it always was, but with the dirt from the sole of a shoe on it. Another is that it is completely broken, and leads into an apartment that looks very similar to Atsuro's at a glance but isn't, and the way it is trashed seems to be an attempt to hide this.

"Boo."

A flashy man, very slutty in his demeanor, stands in the reality of broken door and trashed room.

"Are you the kidnapper? Where is Atsuro?" Kazuya demands.

The gigolo smiles. "Oh, he's not deflowered, if you are worried about that. That would be two hundred bucks for one night if you are interested, and don't forget to tip. Now, you know who I am, I right-out told you this time. Do you remember?"

"Remember what?" Kazuya almost panics. The images of himself standing over himself, knife in hand, all too vivid in the consciousness now.

"Your nightmares. What never happened in this world. But we got the connection going, so you should have received the signal. Say, what did you get out of Babel?"

Kazuya bites his lips. Of course it's Babel. "You are Loki. The Loki. From Babel."

"Bingo! Oh, actually, no. But yes. I'm indeed using a Babel image to communicate, but I'm not your world's Loki." Loki prances in the room, and sits on a overturned sofa. "I'm from an outcome where Cain and Abel launched a full-on total war against the Heavens and swore to eradicate every single trance of an overlord that calls itself god."

"And?"

"It's pointless. And hilarious! Imagine a Don Quixote who fought the shadow of a windmill. It all started in a time and place called the Ancient Mesopotamia..."

"Yes, yes. The Fertile Crescent. First Civilization. When Mankind created the gods and demons."

Loki's eyes lit up, brighter than they already are, yet the rest of his body stayed almost indifferent. "You already know? Does that mean I can skip to the next part?"

Kazuya bares his teeth. "You are a mere god. Stay with me. Now, back then, there was barely any difference between gods and men. One world for all of us. Then Babylon betrayed us all. They sought to make the god of the city supreme to justify their reign. Another god appeared under the guise of a saviour, and then betrayed us all again, shaped us into as lambs for his harvest."

"Good! Very good." Loki applauds. "So you already know everything!"

"No. Sit back." Kazuya commands. "This world is supposed to be closed off. Barricaded. The entire netherworld locked up inside the bowels of Babel to be digested. The Expanse only has air vents to here, no real exchange. Blocked off against any overlords such as yourself."

The eyes of Kazuya grow gold. The air becames heavy, and Kazuya crosses the door, standing in both realities.

"So, little god. How did you get in here?" There is anger and hunger in Kazuya's eyes.

"Well, ouch. I thought we could be friends. Now, since you are this world's Overlord Proxy, you should know that my role as trickster is to punish the hubris of the mighty. Now, Overlord Kazuya, come and meet yourself!"

The air shifts again, the sound of a heavy stone and metal object begins to turn. There is no lightning, no fanfare, only a tear in reality like a bleeding wound slowly opening, and there is another Kazuya, black cape trailing into many black wings.

"Hullo, myself," the new Kazuya says with a smile that reaches his eyes, heterochromic eyes blue and red flashing, bright with an angelic evil, "who's a good shepherd?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is possible that I wanted to type "The eyes of Kazuya grow old" in the previous chapter, but thought about the outline and typed "The eyes of Kazuya grows gold" instead, I'll only change the verb typo and roll with the gold thing in this chapter.

Naoya has nightmares again.

A mirror, the mirror's reflection in the mirror, reflections of mirror's reflections in the mirror.

One mirror. Not two. Yet there is a reflection of the mirror itself within the mirror. And countless reflections of reflections.

The room is empty. There is Naoya, there is a mirror, there are reflections. Naoya knows that he isn't really there, neither does the mirror. All images.

His reflection smiles. So Naoya smiles. The reflection speaks, so Naoya's lips followed.

"The God must fall."

"The Shepherd must rise."

"The world is still wrong."

"Ah," says Naoya, "may I ask questions?"

The reflection flickers, indicating affirmation. The eyes of the reflection have a nameless colour.

"What are you?" Naoya asks.

"What am I?" says the reflection through Naoya's lips, "What I am, of course."

"Truly, what are you?" Naoya asks, the reflection's lips immobile.

The reflection lifts a fist to the mirror. Naoya's arms and hands stay relaxed on either side of the body. All the reflections drum at the mirror, till it cracks and undulates like the iced surface of a lake.

"We are not one," says Naoya, and the reflection's lips followed. "I am myself, we are not one!"

The farthest reflections in the mirror were already merging into one when Naoya woke up.

 

\---

 

"It's here," says the angelic Kazuya, heterochromatic eyes bright, "the merging. There would be only one reality in the end."

"Pointless," says the Kazuya with golden eyes.

"So be it. Let your reality become devoured. Mine will be here soon."

"I won't allow it."

"Did you know that there used to be a Kazuya that did not take the power of Babel at all? Beat it and got its approval, only to send it back to the nether. His reality did not last long. He was defenseless when my reality came, after all."

"Yet my walls are still strong and tall. Go away."

"Why? We are shepherds. I'm herding my reality into richer ones, isn't that our job?"

Kazuya of gold eyes twitched. No chaos Kazuya should refer himself as a shepherd. "You are a fusion."

"Of course I am," says the angelic Kazuya, "you can join too. Aren't you a good shepherd?"

Kazuya sneers. "Oh, I am a good shepherd. We differ in whose subjectivity sees the 'good' part. A hunter that killed all he saw was considered a good hunter by the killers and bad hunter by the forestkeeps. A shepherd... You are talking about the thinning of the herd, I'm talking about conservation efforts."

"Isn't that the same? In our line of work, that is."

Kazuya's gold eyes become less gold. "Tell me one thing," he says with a smile that barely reaches the eyes, "are you still loyal to Naoya?"

"What? No." The answer of the angel is quick. "Naoya is only a sheep. My purpose is true salvation."

The reaction of Kazuya is just as quick. "Then you can go back to the hell you come from."

 

\---

 

Naoya woke to find an incoming message from his messenger, on the screen of a laptop that just woke from sleep mode. The name is gibberish, but the icon of the sender is a blue butterfly and a mask.

 

_Hey, Naoya_

_Would you like to help me start some rumours?_

_Start with this one: Kazuya is always loyal to Naoya._

_Then: Salt can ward off demons, but lime flavoured salt is even more effective, sufficient to defeat a demon lord._

_Then: Angels are afraid of kettles. The cuter the kettle, the worse for them._

_That's it for now, please spread them!_


	14. Chapter 14

Babel, by all means, exists only as data. That, Amane is certain.

Usually, life forms on earth have a physical form.

This is only data, yet it appears to have a will. It did not have a will back when they started hacking it. It stored data within it, but it never attempted any communication. It was a server holding data, a library. That was all it used to be.

Now, it is talking. Awakened. Never full sentences, but the fragments do appear to be communication.

SHIMTU, it says, SHIMTA SHAAMU...

"What fate is decreed?" Amane asks. "Who decreed it?"

LA ROUE, LE DIABLE, LA MAISON-DIEU...

If this is an alternate reality game, this server has been there for way too long without upgrades, and has a target audience of maybe six people and a dog.

\---

The angelic Kazuya lifts the human Kazuya by the hair, admires the claw marks that ruptured the veins of the neck. By all means, this human Kazuya is weak. The COMP indicates that this is the equivalent of an overlord or admin, yet also fully human. No combat skill at all. The MP is over the roof, but no spells or dances to use.

And no trace of Bel in this Kazuya at all.

The angel frowns. "How did you defeat god then? Come on, this world is devoid of angels. You need the Bel power to defeat him."

Then the angel Kazuya realized that there is no netherworld. Babel is present, but as a mere server.

"You have no source of mana," the human Kazuya chuckles, blood spouting as he speaks, "Can you go home with the reserve you have left? I might have trapped you here."

"What did you do?" The angelic Kazuya was panicking. "How is there no netherworld? What did you do with it?"

"I have devoured it."

The angel dropped Kazuya. The latter does not fall. With a small gesture of the hand, the wound of the neck is healed. He stays kneed on the ground, staring the angel into the eyes.

The angel is almost trembling, but royalty knows better than to tremble. "But you have no source of mana. And no spell. What did you do?" 

"When Cain killed you, you were filled with hatred, and arrived in the netherworld. There you met a fragment of Bel, broken and hurt, and you devoured the fallen lord. Is that what happened?"

The angel nods.

"Might you tell me what happened with the... fusion ingredients of yours?" The human Kazuya offers.

The angel bites his lips a little. "I was... Naoya and Remiel both offered their own brand of salvation. One took Naoya's, another took Remiel's. Before long, both worlds became dystopia, much like the kind you'd see in literature or video games. Naoya's a little better, in a way. People had a little more pride. But only a little. Maybe the Kingdom of Saints was better, with all the peace, even if it was, well, the word you would use would be a Pax Romana. It was hell, and I could not stand it, and I could do something... You'd think if you add two things together the flaws might cancel out, but it doesn't. Between the world being devoured by demons and a world being devoured by angels... Well, kill both for humanity, right?"

"Yet you are an angel," Kazuya indicates the eyes, "What happened to your Naoya? The two of them?"

"Four of them," the angel says, holding up four fingers, "Four worlds successfully merged. I didn't do anything with them, really. One is in hiding with Loki, another being hidden by Loki, one executed by angels and another on the run by himself."

"You became an angel," repeated Kazuya.

"I might have done exactly what was expected of me." The angel stood dignified. "I do not regret it. Humanity is happier now. Mine, anyhow. Now, you."

Kazuya's eyes glow gold and blue. "I was a pickier eater than you. I was there, in the netherworld, famished as you were, and stumbled upon the fragment of Bel."

"But you didn't eat it?"

"No, of course not," Kazuya straightens himself, then lean against a wall like he is merely chatting up to a stranger, "I saw Bel, broken and raving about revenge, and it hit me that what I wanted was the same. I was ashamed. Can we truly blame Cain? We were losing our humanity, and he acted... like a human. He was terrified. It also occurred to me that Marduk was the same. An empire built on the back of slaves and endless slaughter. The king had to make war, not as a right but as duty. We were there, two dead butchers, trying to fight against our punishment. Two sinners who decided that some people are worth more than others.

"So of course, I kept on walking and left him there. Then I walked upon Nyarlathotep. Crawling, evil, but everything of it was human. Philemon's existence fluttered in and out of it, also human."

The angel takes a step back. "So you devoured _that_."

"It tasted okay, like Cain's cooking back then. Then I got so hungry that I thought, maybe we don't need a netherworld at all? I did put the data back into Babel though, wonder if it's growing back again."

With that, the human lunged at the angel.


	15. Chapter 15

Atsuro wakes in an apartment much like his own, in a state that is as trashed as when he went in. Yet the apartment is unnatural. The window gave view to an arid land very unlike Japan or California.

A man sat before him. He wears flashy purple suits, and holds a Californian orange in one hand and a satsuma in another.

"You are awake!" the flashy man yells, "Here, satsuma or orange?"

Atsuro points at the satsuma. The flashy man nods, and tosses the fruit into Atsuro's hand.

"Kazuya is... a little busy right now. So you and I will chat to pass time, alright?" the flashy man explains, "Just a little time, it won't be too bad. Now, is there something that you want to know?"

Atsuro stares at the satsuma. "I am dreaming."

The mysterious man blinks. Then his smile widens, all the way up to his eyes. "Oh? And how can you tell that?" He seems very pleased.

"The skin of the satsuma; it changes after I look away. In a dream details such as texts and fine patterns are not kept, bit like how prefabs are not loaded in a video game where camera is not pointing. Then when I look back, the texture is re-generated to keep up. I am dreaming."

"Or, as you can't tell, this little pocket world follows the rules of a dream or video game." The man tosses his orange up and down. "But, since you believe you are dreaming, what would you like to do, in a dream like this?"

Atsuro looks around: beneath the plaster, the walls are made of computers. Hundreds of computers. All high-end.

"I'd like to crack Babel."

"Good boy."

The code should be the same as when he saw it awake, but it looks like something written by Naoya.

 

The cracks begin first to manifest near Naoya, but it was Amane who noticed it first. Yuzu, too, saw the cracks.

It was barely visible at first, then it grows, showing something like an almost barren grass field. Yuzu thought she was hallucinating. But Amane, seeing it through a webcam video, had it recorded and replayed. It did not change.

"Lime flavoured salt," Naoya says for some reason.

And then, they came.

They are not like their images in Babel. In Babel, they ressemble movie characters, all dramatic and colourful and sexualized. They reach out from the cracks bearing such imagery, but when they form they look more complex, more ancient, with hundreds and thousands of coils as if written down fate.

Amane picks up the nearest salt grinder. Yuzu took cover behind a sofa. Naoya only stares, as if seeing someone he could not remember.

They do not attack. They stand there, sometimes floating, not always right-side up, waiting. They do not seem alive, though they were moving when they crawled out.

Naoya is not dreaming, but he is in a dream. He stands on flat ground, before a valve, and there is a multitude of pipelines like a jungle of roots and branches, smelling vaguely of cedar. He can see where the pipelines lead to now. Many worlds like rooms buried in a city.

He reaches; in one world his hand rests on the valve, in another his hand rests on a computer keyboard. He turns the valve in one world, pushing it like a cowherd goading a young ox. In another, he types, slow but steady, a line of code into a notepad file. Worlds begin to flow in like vapor.

 

Kazuya lied on the floor, half-asleep, lucid and not dreaming. There is only one world where he lies, and it is an intact apartment of Atsuro, almost untouched, desk drawers closed and dirty laundry still in the basket, Atsuro asleep on the floor not so far from him.

And Loki is still there.

"Like a serpent that just swallowed a lamb, isn't it?"

And Loki's smile is still there.


	16. Chapter 16

"Snap out of it!"

Naoya wakes on the floor. He wasn't asleep, wasn't dreaming. His computer is on, the line of code unfinished. Yuzu stands by his head, panting and terrified.

"Thanks, Yuzu."

"What is it?" she says as her gaze darted between the beings covered in coils. "What is all this?"

The chat window with Amane is still on, but it is minimized and they can't hear her speaking. Yuzu flinches before touching the mouse, then holds it to open the window anyway. Amane is there, alive, back to them, almost out of view.

She is plugging a USB cable into one of those beings.

When she succeeds, the chat window is filling up with messages of the being.

MAIDEN, it says, LINK THE WORLDS

"Amane! Don't do it!" Yuzu is panicking. "It can't be good!"

MAIDEN  
THE WORLDS MUST BE LINKED  
FOR THE BELOVED SINNER TO WAKE  
THE KINGMAKER IS NEEDED  
THE SERPENT OUT OF HARE'S DEN

Amane smiles. "So unlike you, Humbaba. Would you mind if I'm more of an Enkidu than Gilgamesh?" 

MAIDEN  
MY SEVEN TERRORS ARE YOURS TO COMMAND  
FOR SAKE OF THE TURNING  
FOR SAKE OF THE FOREST  
WHAT IS CUT YEARNS TO REGROW

Amane smears lime salt over Humbaba's throat.

\---

 

Loki kicks Kazuya's head a little, not hard enough to break anything, but enough to stun and harm.

"Really, boy. How nostalgic, to see such a powerful _monster_ waste their strength keeping a world stable rather than destroy it and rebuild it from scratch."

Kazuya tries to struggle, but there is no strength left in him.

"Go on, ask your question. Ask. Why I am not Overlord? Why, I am, in another reality. But in some realities, including this one, the world is programmed to only truly accept the one crowned with the title of Bel. And that means you." 

Kazuya tries again, to no avail. 

"How do you think Hevel-Loki sound?"


End file.
